Sosua Bay Resort Information

You'll be more than impressed with this Colonial Caribbean beachfront hotel. After leaving your worries behind and arriving to the tranquil Domincan Republic, you'll realize you really donīt have a care in the world in this tropical paradise.

Arrival: Jan 25 - Feb 7
WE travelled with Go Travel Direct who has always been excellent in their service and estimation of their hotel quality. The representative was there waiting for us and briefed us on opportunities for excursions. He mentioned that we may have a few challenges with the reception staff if we require room changes or repairs. "Call me" he said.

Rooms:
This hotel was advertised in Canada as a 4 star hotel, people we met said a 5 star in England. I have been to many 4 star hotels in the D.R. but this hotel didn't meet the requirements for a 3 star hotel in terms of its rooms and hotel reception staff. Everyone we met complained of something wrong in their room, whether mold growing around corners, broken bathroom ventilation, tubs that take 1/2 an hour to drain (and therefore are never really clean, even after they've been cleaned), light switches that don't work; smoke detectors not working; broken televisions or absence of; shower curtains that are ripped and moldy, the list is endless. There were some very real safety concerns with a single mother with 3 little ones - a baby on her hips, a 3 year old holding her other hand and a 5 year old trying to make her way down the steps. She was put on the top floor of a hotel that does not have elevators to the rooms. Worse, she said was that the window did not close (insects, critters could slip in) but worse - her toddler children could slip out - from the top floor. She put furniture in front of the window and asked reception to move her - three days in a row and each day they said "manana" which means tomorrow. She finally asked them if they were ever going to move her and they said no! She should sue them! Anyway, if this were a 2 star hotel, I would expect these inadequacies. One couple were put in a room (for a 3 week stay) that looked like it had been abandonned for repairs. After 4 days and calling the hotel manager, they finally got moved because they were staying for 3 weeks. The maid service was less than basic. It was like they didn't have enough linen to go around and so they would take the dirty stuff but not replace it until they were left notes or asked personally. There's more but you get the idea.

Restaurants and Bars:
The food was very good - 4 star quality for sure. The Bahia restaurant was staffed by friendly, warm and competent staff who cared about your happiness. They worked hard whether you tipped them or not but they were giving you an extra smile if you did tip them some minimal amount ($1.00 U.S.) on occasion - by no means daily! There was something for everyone. Both lunch & dinner included a chicken, fish, beef dish as well as vegetarian melanges. Dinners were complemented by an extra meat such as turkey, pork or rabbit. You had to find something to your liking and the meals changed daily for a one week rotation.

There were a la carte restaurants which we attended but we never felt the need to go anywhere else. The a la carte food was a small notch above the buffet.

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
There was a 30 foot expansion of 'hotel' beach. The rest was public. The pools were well maintained though the pool area lacked cleaning (spilled drinks leaving sticky messes). The pool chairs were not cleaned and were scarce. You had to get up on your holiday before 7 a.m. to score a chair at pool side and earlier if you wanted a shady spot! There were always shortages. The pool was two levels (two pools actually) - lovely to look at and a breathtaking view of the bay, however, they were small and if there was a volleyball game going on in the bigger one you couldn't do much else other than stand around the edges and watch.

The animacion team was wonderful. There were 3 or 4 main guys who kept the guests going much of the day and then there were the dancers who were as professional as a new company of dancers could be. The guys, Jose, Wilbert, and two others that I couldn't pronounce their names were always talking to guests, joking, leading the activities and being friendly even when they off duty. These guys worked very hard and were exceptional representatives for the hotel. Exceptional bartenders who were also kind, patient and remembered you - all without tipping - which makes you want to tip because they were so genuine - so we did!

Other Comments:
If it weren't for the food & servers as well as the pool-side staff we would have been miserable at this alleged 4 star hotel. You want a good 4 star hotel - go the Grand Oasis Marien in Puerto Plata - but don't tell anyone or they'll raise their prices!

Arrival
Flew Skyservice. Very cramped and no amenities. Arrival at hotel was a 15 minute drive. Check in was quick but there were no safe keys until the following morning. We arrived at 10 at night and there was a snack bar serving, hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, french fries, etc. It was opened every day for lunch until the wee hours of the morning. Very good.

Rooms
Standard room, very clean, lots of hot water. Fridge but the water was only replaced every second day.

Restaurants and Bars
Tried the Italian and Mexican restaurant. Both were good. Buffet was good, pasta station was great, lots of choices. The bar off the recepition desk made the best banana mam's and Mai Tais. The bar by the pool served Presidente which was always cold. The beer at some of the other bars was not Presidente. Service was very good.

Beach/Pools/Grounds
Beach was a public beach. Within 15 minutes I was eaten by the sand fleas. No one else in my group was only me. We did swim off the lower deck and the water in the ocean is warmer than the pools. The pools were always clean and very refreshing. For the number of people there it was surprising the pools never had more that a hand full of people in them. Can't really comment on the grounds because the resort is build on a cliff so you did not get to see much vegatation. There are four level which means a lot of stairs. But there are some ramps and a few elevators.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
Left the sort and walked through town several times. The Cafe Cubano is a very nice restaurant owned by a couple from the US. They claim be make the best burger in Sosua and if you don't agree it is on the house. Visited Patrick's Silversmith and got some nice deals on amber. Did not do any tours. The activities on the resort were not the best. A few of the night shows were good but other than that the activities were very lacking.

Other Comments
This is a four star hotel. For the price we paid which was $900.00 Canadian taxes it. It was an extremely good deal. I always like the smaller resort bucause you seem the same people and get to make some great friends.

Our Sunquest plane was the first to takeoff from YYZ at 6:30 am and we were the first plane to arrive at POP at 11:20 am. Zero lineups at customs and we were outside into the sunshine within 15 minutes. A little bit of a wait at the Sunquest shuttle bus so we grabbed a couple of ice cold Presidentes for the short 10 minute ride to the hotel. Rooms were not ready until 3 pm but they had a locked room to store our luggage in while we went to the beach.

Rooms::
We requested Building 3 (in advance) which is the only one actually beside the ocean. This building has 4 floors with balconies on the first three, the fourth floor does not have balconies. You are only 40 feet from the cliff overlooking the magnificent Sosua Beach and what a view it is! Room was clean and had a small fridge that they stock daily with 3 waters, 3 Brahma beers and 3 pops. We went to the Playero store just 2 blocks away to replenish our fridge with Dominican Presidente beer (the good stuff)and more bottled water. Washroom was clean and we had hot water every time.

Restaurants and Bars::
Main Buffet had a large selection of different foods. Plenty of variety to satisfy many tastes.There were only two a la carte restaurants when we were there. You have to prebook your reservation at 11 am that day, not convenient as we are at the beach by that time. Sabatini's food was excellent. Long pants are required for men but ladies can wear whatever they want... there were many very skimpy outfits on some of the girls. Why do we have to cover our legs on a hot tropical night and the girls can expose as much skin as they choose??

Beach/Pools/Grounds::
The private resort beach is a very small section at the far east end of the public Sosua Beach, just steps away from the resort.
Abot 50 beach lounges are packed together like sardines with many of them "reserved" by rude people who think they are entitled to throw a towel over the lounge so they will have it whenever they get there. Whatever happened to first come, first served?
Hotel staff should prohibit this selfish tactic but they don't.
This small 100 ft. section of beach is narrow and there are alot of rocks and coral in the water which make it quite hazardous to swim or walk in.
We chose to walk 10 minutes to the center of the big and wide Sosua Beach, where there are no rocks whatsoever and you have plenty of room to lounge and play frisbee...no crowds. Luciano is a very kind local man who rents us 2 lounge chairs, a table and umbrella for a mere 100 pesos ($3.) per day. He attends to our beverage needs whenever we signal him. Back at the resort, there are no waiters on the beach and you have to go up a flurry of stairs to wait in line for a small plastic glass of foamy Brazilian Brahma draft beer. Why would they serve Brazilian cerveza when they have the excellent Dominican Presidente? It was so much better to be on the public beach and have Luciano serve us drinks all day for the little cash it cost. The swimming on the big beach is exceptional as there is large reef 100 yards offshore that breaks up the waves and protects the beach. Sosua is by far the best beach on the north coast for swimming with no huge waves, no rocks and no riptide/undertow. It's a true gem!

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel::
Since we have been to Sosua 10 times since 1985 and have seen alot of this beautiful island, we simply relax and soak up the sun at the middle of the long crescent shaped Sosua Beach with our pal Luciano keeping us well lubricated!

Other Comments::
Sosua Bay Hotel has the best location on the north coast. An outstanding view of the postcard Sosua Beach and just 10 minutes from POP airport, all for under $1000. per person, you can't beat it. It is not fancy but more than adequate for the average reasonable person. The other hotels in Sosua that are on the ocean (Casa Marina and Sosua By the Sea) do not have a good beach for swimming, with huge waves and undertow the norm.
Sosua Bay Hotel is by far the best choice in Sosua. We want to return there again this winter but see that Sunquest has a Stop Sell order on it and we are unable to book our holiday even though it is in their 2010 brochure. Hopefully they will get it back in their inventory soon so we can return for another fantastic beach holiday in beautiful Sosua.

Arrival
We booked a wild card with go travel direct and were very pleased with our resort. Our flight was delayed due to a snow storm but check in was quick when we arrived and we were told about the late night grill available on check in.

Rooms
Clean. Housekeeping knew when we were out and cleaned then. Did not get hand towels on several days.

Restaurants and Bars
Buffet was clean with hot food. Good variety. Mexican service was not up to par. Light above the fan was like a strobe light and would not turn off. Asked for bake potato and given rice. Three of us ordered cheesecake for dessert and were given lemon cake and told it was cheesecake when asked. We had already seen their cheesecake so we were aware it was incorrect. We waited over 45 min for a menu and were not offered drinks from the bar. The Italian was excellent. Food was good, hot and service was great. Beach Grill service was excellent. They always had a smile and comment with your meal.

Beach/Pools/Grounds
Grounds were well maintained. Pool was clean and cool - refreshing. Very small beach area. Not many loungers. Waves were very high while we were there so it was difficult to be on the lower beach level.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
Did not go on any tours as we have been to that area at least 10 other times. Activity staff were present most of day. Usual dance shows as other resorts in the evening but well put on.

If you like stairs then this is the perfect spot for you. There is an eleveator but you have to wait three days for it to arrive. There is absolutly no beach which i didn't like at all. Lots of rocks. The resort is also in a bay so you don't see the sky and the ocean coming together. The resort is right on the ocean so from the bottom platform of the resort you walk down the stairs directly into the water. Staff were nice and one was a little to friendly. The staff member who was to friendly was inappropriatly grabbing and was fired that night. From there we were moved to the 5 star.

Your Arrival:
The plane ride was horrible. We were crammed into the plane with little to no leg room and the staff of the plane never shut up for more then five minutes. We flew with Go Travel so we had an air bus. When arriving the travel agent rep was there to greet us and take us to our resort. Check in didn't take long and we didn't have to wait very long for our room although our friends had to wait for quite some time.

Rooms:
Rooms were clean nothing fantastic but when you think of were you are you don't expect much. Maid were nice we only had one time when a maid took something out of our room. No Biggie. Bathrooms around the resort we clean except one night i found a cockroach behind the toilet i was sitting on. The only other night i found a cockroach was on the bottom level it crawled down one of the posts and thats as far as it got then it got squashed by my husband. Lots of little lizards but i expected all of this.

Restaurants and Bars:
The main buffet was great until one day i walked in on good friday and seen a huge fish cooked from head to toe and the next day was a huge pig cooked from head to toe. I ate the pig until i seen i actually was the lucky one and got the arsehole of the pig. The mexican restaurant was fab but the others were too busy never got the cahnce to eat there. The beach bar and snack bar were good for french fries and hamburgers and hotdogs. Its supposed to be all you can drink but they stop filling up our little kegs the second day because of a group of teenagers or young adults were drinking until they were sick. We pay for all inclusive we expect to get all inclusive. Not impressed with that at all.

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Beach? What beach i have a bigger pile of sand in my back yard for my kids to play with. It was very disapointing. There was a public beach there but it was so busy that week you couldn't even see a stitch of sand. And yes every where you went there were people with guns. The market on the beach was huge but scary. Too many people.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Barvissimo night was boring. Horseback riding was way too long we did the whole day and the poor horses i think they were ready to be retired and we should of been shot for riding them. They showed us pics of nice horses but when we got there not so. Snorkeling was fun and kayaking.

Other Comments:
I wouldn't recommend this resort to really anyone. Its good for teenagers that are looking for cheap and a place to get drunk and party but not something we enjoyed. I would rather pay more money and go somewhere else.

Arrival: Mar 5 - 19
The front desk staff was very helpful. We have found that when you hand over tip's you get better service.

Rooms
The room was clean and a comfortable bed. our maid was wonderful

Restaurants and Bars
the food was very good no complain's. When people complain about the food they forget, they are in a different country.

Beach/Pools/Grounds
Beach very small. but the ground's are very clean. Pool clean but very cold. hottub only worked for the first two day's of our holiday and most of the jet's didn't work. That was a little disapointing.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
Activities staff was great. we have been to the D.R. 5 time's and have been on most of the tour's. so we just took in the sun.

Other Comments
If there were elevator's for each of the hotel building's we would come back to this hotel. To many stair's for people with knee or hip problem's.One thing I have found is they like canadian's but not our money. That is sad because canadian's will stop coming for that reason. The beach people at sosua were very agressive and said we canadian's were to cheap. If it wasn't for all of vacationer's were would there income come from.

Arrival
Our flight was late & we did not arrive until about 9:30pm - Our Go Travel Direct rep met us at the airport and was very helpful from that moment on - bus to Resort was only about 15 minutes & when we arrived we were able to check in right away - get changed into the summer clothes & still enjoy late night food & drink as the buffet opens up every night at 10PM - 6AM - We were very satisfied on arrival

Rooms
Our room was spacious, older decor but clean with a king size bed, TV with plenty of English channels if you wanted it & a full size 4pc bath. Housekeeping was fine. The room had a patio that overlooked the pools and the Bay - stunning - wish I could take that home with me

Restaurants and Bars
All good - the food was better than I expected - lots of it and every type you could want. Staff was great. The bars were just plain fun - the staff was helpful, happy & great to chat with.

Beach/Pools/Grounds
Simply great

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
Did two 1/2 day tours - again - lots of fun - staff was great & we learned a lot about history & culture.
Entertainment at the resort was fun, lively, and certainly enjoyable.

Other Comments
I had read other reviews of this resort before we wnt & some were quite negative so we were concerned about what we would fine - I thought it was abosolutely fantastic for the price - would recommend it to anyone

The price we paid was a steal, and we thought that going over Easter would be fun as we would all miss very little work. Wrong. Easter in Sosua sees armed military on the beach with machine guns on Friday at supper time. What a surprise!

Your Arrival:
Flew from Halifax direct, no problems. Luggage came quickly, bus waiting to take us to resort. Big line up at desk for room assignment. Wanted water view, cost us $20.00 US that we slipped the front desk clerk. Took all day to get room, lucky we had bathing suits in carry on. Luggage set by pool for the entire day. They never figured out we wanted two beds (for two girls) so shared king. Reservations for group were all mixed up, as they had the wrong people assigned together, so our room key didn't work for the first two days (they thought I was in another room).

Rooms:
Clean, but shabby. No working bedside lights. Lots of towels. Nice maid service, we always left a tip on our pillows and got fresh sheets every day. Had small balcony so we could see the ocean. There are five or six different levels in the resort and there are more stairs (no elevator) then I ever want to walk again.

Restaurants and Bars:
Buffet was great, nice breakfast, amazing amount of bacon! Loved the fresh fruit smoothies. Enjoyed the a la carte restaurants, but we did have some trouble with the greeter at one of the restaurants who had a rude comment (and we all left, not worth the grief).

Bar by the reception desk if fabulous, lovely lady bartender, one at the pool is the pits! They forgot to put liquor in our drinks! Imagine!

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
There is no beach in front of the resort, you must walk along a stretch of rocks to get to the public beach. As we were there on the Easter weekend, we got off the beach when the army showed up to clear the beach with machine guns drawn. Scary. It seems the Hell's Angels were in town for the weekend. Hotel staff told us to stay on the resort as it was a dangerous time to be out in the town, and to stay off the public beach because there is alot of drinking (and people drown).

Two pools, one nice and clean and has beautiful view, other not so nice. Swim up bar was closed.

At the foot of the resort is a concrete slab with steps down to the water that are very slippery and the ocean in front is populated by sea urchins so bring water shoes and keep your feet up.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
We were a brave lot and went out to the clubs one of our first nights there. While waiting in the lobby we were not entertained to see men bring prostitutes in with them (payment was exchanged in front of us). Club was also full of hookers! I am no prude, but we saw the guys who paid for sex with their families the next day (you can rent a room on the resort by the night).

During the day I walked to the market alone and enjoyed seeing the pretty town. I didn't like the sellers on the beach, they could be really pushy and rude. I only went once, the second time I went with a group and stayed with them.

Other Comments:
I loved the sun and my friends companionship, it could make even the worst place seem great, and that sums it up. After having stayed in Punta Cana at several resorts, I would never go back to Sosua. I never want to see a prostitute doing business again.

Departure:
One the day we were to leave we were all up early, had breakfast and headed to reception early. Plane delayed 9 hours. Went for a swim, had a drink. They had taken our bracelets so no one ate the rest of the day. After a long day of waiting in the heat we were all dehydrated and tired. When we got to the airport the check in agent wanted to charge us $400.00 for having overweight baggage. He wanted us to not only put our luggage on the scale but also our carry on, our purses, my camera case and anything else he could think of. My friend was so pissed off she dumped her luggage out and threw it all in the garbage. They wouldn't let us pass our alcohol purchase through the gate, so they included that in our total weight. It was so stressful, we almost missed our flight home, and all the others in the group were so worried about where we were and what had happened to us. We were held up for over an hour.

You have to walk miles through the airport to get to the departure section, and we had to run to catch the plane, the stress of the baggage problems, and dehydration, I had a cardiac episode on the way home and came off the plane in a wheelchair.

Make sure you weight your luggage, as this is a great money making scam, and they did it to three other couples that were leaving with us.

This resort happens to be one of the best I have every stayed in during my vacations in DR, it is an amazing hotel. The hotel services were top notch and the staff gave their 100% to make sure that the guests felt comfortable throughout their stay. The view from my room was amazing and breathe taking and I will advise you to consider this place if you are looking to go on a romantic trip to Cuba as this place has a romantic atmosphere. The bar by the pool was my favorite; there is nothing as relaxing as coming out of the pool to bar. I enjoyed the city so I didnít really stay in all day throughout my holiday, there were lots of things for me to take part in, I went sightseeing and took part in some water activities which was fun. The rooms here are very clean and have the necessary requirements for a standard hotel. The hotel is a nice place but in my opinion, it needs better management and new upgrades if they want more guests. Before visiting this place, I checked out reviews and the reviews I saw ere not encouraging, I just had to come see for myself and I have to say itís not that bad but they could be better. I had a great time since I went sightseeing almost on a daily basis throughout my stay here in April 2014, I will be back once there are new upgrades.